Naked choruses, sexual fantasies, rubbish tip wastelands and nods to refugee camps … Athens’ Epidaurus festival is thrilling audiences – and thrusting theatre into the 21st century
Olympian Sofia Bekatorou spoke up about sexual abuse in sport and others followed suit in a #metiSofia movement, sparking Greece’s own #metoo as women from all walks of life remembered their own tales of abuse and misogyny.
Actress Zeta Douka spoke up about being verbally abused and kicked, when she was a young actress, working with actor/director George Kimoulis. This opened the floodgates to complaints by other actresses about the difficulties of collaborating with the talented but ‘violent’ director.
Alexandra Tavouliari said she had felt “terrorised” by him, Evdokia Roumelioti lost her voice and took pills to calm her nerves, Katerina Papoutsakis also had psychosomatic issues, Katerina Geronikolou said she stopped believing in herself and Fay Xyla called her time with Kimoulis a most difficult collaboration.
28 January 2021 1:35pm
A number of actresses have spoken out against abuse they faced when working with popular actor/director George Kimoulis, who is being accused of psychological and verbal abuse by women he has worked with.
Actress Zeta Douka was the first to speak up in an interview with MEGA channel, where she said that she had been kicked and verbally assaulted during their theatre collaboration in the play, ‘Pio Konta’ (Closer Togeher). She spoke of many instances of abuse both on and off stage with the director lashing out against her in anger.
“One night, when Athens was burning due to the incidents surrounding (the killing of student Alexis Grigoropoulos), he sent a colleague to tell me to go on stage and tell people that the staging is being cancelled. When I went and asked him why he wouldn’t go out as the head (of the production), he abused me, he kicked me and said ‘OK, we’re going on the third bell’,” she said. “I put my self-respect beneath the